Article
There are seemingly many Christians who, Jesus’ words and deeds to the contrary, are determined to outspiritualize Jesus, to disembody the Christian faith from its earthy Hebrew roots, to act as if we can experience the grace of God on our own without recourse to such primal and primitive facts as bread, wine and water. …
Article
The church militant seems to relish military terms. We are constantly besieged by fund-raising campaigns; we are groggy from serving on so many task forces; we are daily informed of new evangelistic strategies. Maybe the time has come to apply the same language to thinking about the revitalization of, worship and to outline a national …
Continue reading “A Liturgical Stategy: Four Lines of Attack”
Article
Is World Communion Sunday a symbol of all believers’unity in Christ or a display of continuing disunity? I saw this issue dramatized one Sunday in the mid-’70s when I feared our World Communion celebration would explode into an ugly demonstration of worldly divisions. Two women were walking down the aisle to receive the symbols of …
Article
The cover of the August 1996 Atlantic Monthly announced a Christian cultural revolution: “Giant full-service churches are winning millions of customers with [their] pop-culture packaging. They may also be building an important new form of community.” Author Charles Trueheart described what he calls the “Next Church”: No spires. No crosses. No robes. No clerical collars. …
Article
A new reformation of word and sacrament is occurring in North American Protestantism. Yet so unnoticed has this movement been that it lacks a name. This inconspicuousness contrasts with the highly publicized liturgical reforms within Roman Catholicism since Vatican II. My purpose in this article is to delineate the contours of the movement — in …
Article
Recently I was invited to preach in a middle-class United Methodist church in the San Francisco area. Our ecumenical era permits such invitations to Catholic theologians, whether lay or clerical. During the service, I was struck by the profound differences between the liturgies of Methodists and Catholics, and not simply because Catholics are high church …
Continue reading “A Tale of Two Sundays: Liturgical Reform Gone Astray”
Article
It is commonly assumed that music in the church is embellishment of worship, somewhat in the same category as architecture or stained glass windows. Church musicians, while deploring this lower estate, do not often make the case for the theological function of their vocation. Reflection upon the nature of religious experience and the art of …
Article
He was the Word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it, I do believe and take it. The simplicity of this anonymous 16th century poem (included in The Christian Calendar [Merriam, 1975], p. 76) belies the centuries of theological warfare over the divine-human composition …
Article
“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where l am going you cannot come’”…. Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me …
Article
A half hour before the Sunday morning service begins, St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco already displays the holy chaos that characterizes its worship. In the domed entrance hall a choir is practicing motets. In the rectangular “synagogue” area, where worshipers’ chairs face each other across a long raised platform, the liturgist …
Continue reading “Back to the Future: Fourth-Century Style Reaches Bay Area Seekers”
Article
When Mark Twain finally mastered the intricacies of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi and had catalogued in his mind every trifling feature of the great river, he confessed to a deep deprivation: "I have lost something which can never be restored to me in my life. All the grace, and beauty—the poetry—has now gone …
Continue reading “Beyond the Polarization: Grace and Surprise in Worship”
Article
Renewing any institution requires revitalizing its core, its reason for being. Unless this core is refocused and funded afresh, renewal becomes a matter of strategy for survival. Accordingly, the churches’ renewal becomes possible only when their religious vitality is energized again by a basic reform of their worship of God. Worship enacts and proclaims a construal of Reality and …
Continue reading “Caught in the Act: Praise and Renewal in the Church”
Article
Anglican churchman W. R. Inge once wrote, “When our first parents were driven out of Paradise, Adam is believed to have remarked to Eve: ‘My dear, we live in an age of transition.”’ The song of God’s people in the ‘90s — as in every other decade — is also in transition. For some people …
Continue reading “Church Music in the ‘90s: Problems and Prognoses”
Article
Whether it be the garish uniforms of 18th-century European soldiers or the drab, sometimes threadbare dress of medieval monks, clothing and uniforms have always served as signs of identity. Even today, the serviceable khaki of a Boy Scout marks an individual as belonging to that organization, just as the dress of a policeman or bus …
Article
Recently Aidan Kavanagh, O.S.B., professor of liturgy at Yale divinity school and sometime gourmand, commented that “the church will not recover the Eucharist as its central act of worship until we recover our ability to eat well.” As one who is in a continual lovers quarrel with my own Methodist liturgical tradition, I think I …
Article
For some people, Memphis, Tennessee, conjures visions of southern religion: folks hootin’ and hollerin’ about God, eternal damnation and hell; sweating preachers thundering on about sex, drinking and Democrats. Southern religion is all heat and fire, the blinding light of Jesus converting sinners to saints in a flash. This is what more reasonable Christians used …
Article
If the creed is the point in the liturgy where the congregation learns to reason theologically, it is also the place where Christians learn the virtue of courage. Over and over again in the Gospels, when people are challenged to declare whether they believe, the issue is not whether they have enough knowledge or understanding, …
Article
Dreaming of New Forms and Utterances: Seeds for Ritual Reformation in a TV Culture Scenario It is Monday evening and the chairperson of the worship committee is driving to a meeting of that committee at her church. Let’s call her Edith. Edith is feeling anxious about it because she anticipates a conflict between the new …
Continue reading “Dreaming of New Forms and Utterances: Seeds”
Article
If there is anywhere a separation between the kingdoms of the sacred and the secular, it is in the doctrine and practice of the Lord’s Supper. That so-called sacrament as it is celebrated in our churches has little or no relevance for modern man, precisely because it has little or nothing to do with eating …
Article
The year is 1968. The place is suburban Chicago. The room is crowded with long-haired young people clad in faded blue jeans, hand-strung beads, Indian headbands, moccasin boots and long calico dresses. Here and there, a clandestine marijuana joint is shared. On stage is a folk-rock band whose dress and demeanor resemble those of the …
Article
For most Christians, the primary symbol of God’s love and care for humanity is a cross–a reminder of the crucifixion. Yet for approximately the first five centuries of the Christian movement the crucifixion was not depicted visually because it was too closely associated with a shameful criminal death to be useful as a symbol of …
Article
It’s sunny and 70 at Chapel Hill. I’m speaking to Project Compassion, an advocacy group for end-of-life issues, on an unlikely trinity of oxymorons — the good death, good grief and the good funeral. “What,” most people reasonably ask, “can ever be good about death or grief or funerals?” The 130 people in this room …
Article
Worship is over and I am standing in the door way shaking hands. In front of me is a couple I do not recall seeing before. I say, "Good morning! I’m Martin Copenhaver." By my manner and my tone of voice you might think that I am greeting long-lost friends, rather than introducing myself to …
Article
This past year I observed an Easter ritual in Jerusalem that will be repeated soon, unchanged, exactly as it has been performed each year for centuries — the Miracle of Holy Fire. It is celebrated at midday on Easter Eve in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on the site that church tradition holds to …
Article
Church musicians, not surprisingly, often look to that hymnbook of the Old Testament, the Psalms, for their texts; and when the Hymn Society of America convened here recently, one passage from the 137th Psalm became a recurrent motif: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” That strange land in which hymn …
Article
On the very rare occasions when I, a Presbyterian pastor, find myself in the pew as guest at another church’s communion service, I do a most inhospitable thing: I smell the cup. With an elegant circular gesture, I pass the cup beneath my nostrils to "test the bouquet." Actually, I am not checking to see …
Article
As an occasional celebrant and preacher in parish churches and in the Episcopal Divinity School chapel, I am aware that the word “Lord” offends some people whenever they encounter the term in a service of worship. For them, using “Lord” can make either the deity or Jesus of Nazareth seem terribly remote, excessively masculine, and …
Article
Suppose you are given the freedom of an ancient European city. In a public ceremony, the mayor presents you with a silver key and an illuminated scroll. You are honored and recognized. But the key opens no doors, and the freedoms listed in the scroll no longer give tangible rewards. You will get as many …
Article
How often people today cry out in exasperation or despair, “I just don’t have enough time!” There is so much to do: earn a living, fulfill a vocation, nurture relationships, care for dependents, get some exercise, clean the house. Moreover, we hope to maintain sanity while doing all this, and to keep growing as faithful …
Continue reading “Keeping Sabbath: Reviving a Christian Practice”
Article
"The time for the great reversal is at hand," conclude Hartford Seminary sociologists David Roozen and William McKinney, whose recent study indicates that 42 per cent of the baby-boom generation are returning to church (reported in the January 21, 1987, issue of the Lutheran) Many people between the ages of 18 and 35 who attended …
Article
The Slavic principality of Kievan Rus — in what is now Soviet territory — was converted to Christianity a thousand years ago, and the celebration of that anniversary has aroused interest around the world. Quite understandably, most of that interest has focused on how the Soviet government will respond to the recognition of the Russian …
Continue reading “Making the Invisible Visible: Russian Icons of the Golden Age”
Article
A few years ago I had the opportunity to work for a semester as a chaplain at a Boston jail. My primary work was helping to lead a group of inmates in the practice of silent prayer. I cannot say that I had any particular expectations or resolves about this undertaking before I began it. …
Article
Christian public worship is an important form of social control — a way to influence people. That may sound paradoxical or even evil, but until we admit that worship involves control, we cannot easily discuss worship’s relation to justice. Social control does not necessarily apply to private worship or personal devotion, although it can, because …
Continue reading “Moving Christian Worship Toward Social Justice”
Article
“Apostasy” is a strong word. I do not use it lightly. But it is, I think, not too strong a term to characterize worship in many Protestant churches in this country. In worship both conservatives and liberals tend to reshape Scripture in their own images, and both consistently humanize the sacraments. One finds little difference …
Article
This fall the U.S. Supreme Court will consider arguments in a case that goes to the very heart of the constitutional guarantee of free exercise of religion. The court will decide whether the state can prohibit a religious ritual, and if so, what kinds of dangers justify such an extraordinary prohibition. This litigation involves not …
Article
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. –Edward Tufte In recent years PowerPoint has become a dominant force in worshiping communities across the theological and liturgical spectrum. In churches smitten with the Microsoft wonder, its power to affect the sensibilities of worshipers and thus to shape congregational identity is almost never discussed. A tacit assumption is …
Article
DISCIPLESHIP RESOURCE MATERIALS FOR GROWTH IN CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE P.O. Box 189 Nashville, TN 37202 Phone (615) 340-7284 [Please note: this document was scanned by computer for the Fourth Fosdick Convocation on Preaching and Worship, The Riverside Church, New York City, 1997. All apologies for any misspelled words, deleted words or formatting errors that …
Article
Despite neglect in the recent past, there are signs that the church is again turning to explore the faithful forms of its public worship. For what is this act of obedience but the exploration of the outskirts of the terrible mysteries of God? Holiness is a category of experience in religion that has had rough …
Continue reading “Reality and Resonance: The Church Turns Toward Worship”
Article
When my wife, Darrah, and I met Andy in the Los Angeles airport, we thought we would never have a real conversation with him. This tall, muscular guy nonchalantly palmed a Bible as if he were pacing across the stage of a megachurch. But we soon realized that we would talk with him again, and …
Article
The last stage of the worship liturgy clothes the congregation in the practices of faith so that its members make the whole world a Eucharist. Making the whole world a Eucharist means bringing all the practices of worship into a regular pattern of discipleship. It means extending God’s invitation to all, bringing all to repentance …
Article
The church I served in New Haven had a moment at the beginning of worship when anyone could come forward to make an announcement. People had a love-hate relationship with this time. On the one hand, it was a chance to see the diverse vitality of the congregation and to match a face and a …
Article
JOHN L. BELL can’t keep from singing. When the CENTURY staff recently met with him, he even taught us a song. Bell is a member of the Wild Goose Resource Group, based in Scotland, which is devoted to helping congregations discover and create “new forms of relevant and participative worship.” A minister in the Church …
Article
These days one can feel twinges of guilt about insisting — especially in church, where one’s thoughts are supposed to be on higher things than wanting to throttle the preacher — that the use of language is important. It sounds dangerously elitist and stuffy. But the fight about language which is raging in the churches …
Article
On Sunday morning Christians across America sing praises to their ‘king,” ascribe all glory and power to Him, pray for His “enthronement” and speak of a God whose Son has inherited the divine “kingdom.” During the week, however, they engage in political campaigns, vote in elections, decry the emergence of hereditary dynasties and resist the …
Article
“Catholics believe that Christ is really present in the Eucharist,” said the Philadelphia TV newscaster, “but Protestants say he is only symbolically present. The half-minute notice on the August 5 evening news thus distorted and dismissed the significance of a unique theological symposium at the International Eucharistic Congress. Some 200 theologians of many denominations demonstrated …
Continue reading “The Bread of Life for the Life of the World”
Article
Paula is 19 and a sophomore at a well-respected private university. She lives in an apartment several miles from the main campus. On this particular day, she splashes on a bit of French perfume after putting on her grunge clothes, jumps in her Toyota, and turns on a tape of reggae music as she drives …
Article
After our local church’s session wrestled with the question of whether to ask the congregation to be quiet during the prelude, I tried to step back and review the sanctuary as a locus for prayer and worship. People, I discover, bring needs to express in worship and prayer which are impossible for the corporate sanctuary …
Article
A well-intentioned minister once asked if I would interpret a passage of Scripture in the form of dance for Sunday morning worship. He was searching for a way to “liven up” his sometimes “austere and predictable” worship services. He suggested that I invite some of the children to participate, for the members of his congregation …
Continue reading “The Living Word: Dance as a Language of Faith”
Article
Church musicians are all too typically regarded as those who sustain the church by providing musical services. This view has them responsible for creating fellowship and good feeling in the congregation — dispensing services that keep everybody happy, entertain the troops and give everybody warm fuzzies. This job description creates two intolerable tensions. First, if …
Continue reading “The Practical Life of the Church Musician”
Article
I‘ve often wondered what sort of conversation Protestant Reformer John Calvin and Catholic Bishop Francis de Sales would have had if they had met. These humanist scholars were both trained in law, were both afire with the love of God, and both ended up in Geneva, Switzerland, though separated by a generation. Both Calvin and …
Continue reading “The Whole World Singing: A Journey to Iona and Taizé”
Article
All the popular indicators of health and vitality suggest that church music is alive and well in the ‘80s. Almost every parish boasts (or aspires to boast) of some sort of choir to assist in leading in worship. Church music publishers report increasing sales. The sheer volume of choir and organ music published each year …
Continue reading “Thoughts on Smashing Idols: Church Music in the ‘80s”
Article
Sarah Bentley was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1980 to a ministry of teaching and dance. Having worked in the area of theology, education and dance since 1973, she is now on the teaching staff at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York. Her work in congregations, conferences and workshops is part of …
Continue reading “To Animate the Body of Christ: Sarah Bentley Talks About Sacred Dance”
Article
“There is no there there,” said Gertrude Stein about Oakland, California. “There is a different there there,” say I, an Oaklandite by birth, about virtuality. “Virtual” presence differs from “real” presence in propinquity — time, place and relationship — as well as vividness and interactivity. The technology of virtual presence simulates “being there”; it holds …
Article
Although the American Christian may seem to have many choices in selecting a church, only three basic forms of worship are actually available to him or her. There are serious drawbacks to two of these options, which the third seeks, with considerable success, to remedy. Curiously, similar features characterize Protestant and Roman Catholic styles of …
Continue reading “Where the Reformation Was Wrong on Worship”
Article
Recently, I was asked to lead a workshop on alternative worship for a statewide annual denominational gathering. The following article is a condensation of my remarks at that conference. How would it feel to participate in an extravagantly creative worship experience? Could a service be designed that mixes church tradition with original ideas? Does alternative …
Continue reading “Where Two or More Are Gathered: Exploring Alternative Worship Strategies”
Article
A church service called the U2charist would seem like liberal Protestantism at its worst: take music from a band that was cutting-edge over two decades ago, sprinkle some religiosity on top and try to reach hip younger people. I went expecting the worst. My dread increased when I arrived for a staging of the event …
Article
Recently I received another invitation to attend a "worship experience" at a nearby church. Now, I have nothing against a worship experience, for I have had some of my most powerful, most moving, most transforming experiences in the midst of Christian worship. Nonetheless, I am dismayed by the popular phrase "worship experience" to describe the …
